10 Eagle Street is the gold tower at the river end of the CBD. Thirty four levels, finished in 1978, and the tallest building in Brisbane when it opened. Abseil Pro cleaned the external glass here across 2017 and 2018, the second time as a full pass of every face.

It is an older tower and the shape of it is the job. The facade steps and angles rather than running flat to the ground, so a drop does not simply go straight down. Every face needed its own rig, and parts of it were only reachable by going out through a window rather than off the roof.

At a glance

Location

Brisbane CBD

Services

Exterior window cleaning

Access

Rope access, rigged from the roof and from setbacks

When

September 2017 and June 2018

Photos

On site

10 Eagle Street, the bronze glass tower on Eagle Street in the Brisbane CBD — The gold tower from Eagle Street.

Looking straight up the glass facade of 10 Eagle Street, Brisbane — Straight up the face from the footpath.

Rope access technician small against the facade of 10 Eagle Street — A technician on the face gives you the scale of it.

Rope lines running down the angled glass facade at 10 Eagle Street — Lines run from the top down the angle.

Rope access window cleaner on the glass facade at 10 Eagle Street, Brisbane — Out on the blade of the building.

Rope access technician working the sloped glass face at 10 Eagle Street — The face slopes, so the rope hangs off it.

Window cleaner on rope against the sloping glass at 10 Eagle Street — Working in against the slope to reach the glass.

Rope access window cleaner on the bronze glass facade at 10 Eagle Street, Brisbane — On the bronze glass with the CBD in the reflection.

Window cleaner with bucket on rope at 10 Eagle Street, Brisbane — Bucket, squeegee, and a long way down.

Rope access window cleaner high on 10 Eagle Street above the Brisbane River — Late in the day over the river end.

Window cleaner on rope at 10 Eagle Street in late afternoon light — Last drop of the day.

Rope access window cleaner silhouetted against the sun at 10 Eagle Street — Working into the sun on the western face.

Rope access technician on a setback ledge at 10 Eagle Street, Brisbane — Stopped on a setback to reset the rope.

Rope access window cleaner on the lower levels of 10 Eagle Street — Down on the punched window levels.

Rope access technicians at an open window at 10 Eagle Street, Brisbane — In and out through a window on the way to the ropes.

Rope access window cleaner silhouetted on the glass at 10 Eagle Street — Nothing but glass and rope.

The clean

Bronze glass shows everything

Reflective glass is unforgiving. It shows every streak, every run mark and every panel that got missed, and it shows them from the street, because the whole face is a mirror. On a tower this size that means working to a system rather than a panel at a time, and finishing a drop properly before the rope moves.

On every clean

All external glass from the top down, including the angled and sloping faces

Frames, mullions and sills done with the glass rather than left behind

Drops sequenced top to bottom, so nothing already cleaned got dirtied on the way past

Setbacks and ledges cleared of debris while the crew was on them

Anything found on the facade photographed and passed on rather than left

How the 2018 clean ran

The 2018 clean was a full pass of the building, quoted at 150 hours. It ran from the fourth to the twentieth of June with three technicians, worked face by face and following the sun, so the glass was not drying faster than it could be squeegeed.

The tower was occupied the whole time, so drops were booked with the building and the crew worked around tenants rather than the other way round.

How we got to it

Rigged from the roof, and out through windows

Most drops were rigged from the roof. The tower steps in as it rises though, so parts of it were reached from setback ledges partway down, and some faces could only be got at by going out through an opening window on the floor above.

Working an occupied tower

Every drop passed somebody office window. Drops were sequenced and notified so nobody had a technician outside their desk all week, and exclusion zones went in on the footpath below with a spotter on the ground.

Eagle Street does not close. Everything was tethered, nothing came off the building, and gear was carried up rather than lifted from the street.

How we left it

Tools tethered on every drop, and nothing dropped from height

Exclusion zones and signage in before a drop started and packed away after it

Keys and passes back to the building before anyone left

Setbacks and ledges left clear, not used as somewhere to leave gear

Every photo tagged with the level and elevation

Photos handed over, so the building had a record of what was found

Challenges

What made this one awkward

The building is not a box. It steps and angles, so one rope line did not reach the ground and every face needed its own plan. That is setup time before any glass gets touched.

Parts of it could only be reached by going out through a window, which means working inside an occupied floor to get to the outside of the building, with everything that involves.

It sits on one of the busiest corners in the CBD, so the footpath below was managed for every drop rather than only at the start of the day.

Outcome

What the building got

A mirrored tower that read as clean from the street, on a building where one missed panel is visible from a block away.

These photos are from September 2017 and June 2018. It is on here because a stepped facade in the middle of the CBD is a fair test of whether a crew can plan a building rather than just descend one.